45. =Ruth's Resolution.= This sermon was one of five "Discourses on Various
Important Subjects, Nearly concerning the great Affair of the Soul's
Eternal Salvation: viz. I. Justification by Faith Alone. II. Pressing into
the Kingdom of God. III. Ruth's Resolution. IV. The Justice of God in the
Damnation of Sinners. V. The Excellency of Jesus Christ. Delivered in
Northampton, chiefly in the time of the late wonderful pouring out of the
Spirit of God there. By Jonathan Edwards A.M. Pastor of the Church of
Christ in Northampton. Deut. iv. 8 [9]--Take heed to thyself, and keep thy
soul diligently, lest thou forget the things which thine eyes have seen,
and lest they depart from thy heart all the days of thy life. Boston:
Printed and sold by S. Kneeland and T. Green, in Queen Street over against
the Prison. MDCCXXXVIII." The first four of these discourses were preached
during the revival of 1734-1735 and were selected by the desire of the
people as those from which they had derived special benefit; the fifth was
selected by Edwards himself at the request of some persons from a
neighboring town who heard it, and because he thought that a sermon on the
excellency of Christ might appropriately follow the others, which were of
an awakening character. They were prefixed to the American reprint of the
_Narrative of Surprising Conversions_, which was first published in
England. The cost of their publication was defrayed by the
congregation,--a clear evidence of their deep interest, as they were at
the time heavily burdened by the expenses of the new meeting-house. See
Dwight, _Life of Edwards_, pp. 140 f.; cf. n. here following, p. 162.
The sermon on Ruth's Resolution has been selected as the shortest of the
above discourses to illustrate a type of revival sermon in marked contrast
to the sermon on Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God. They all, however,
bear out Edwards's own testimony concerning his preaching: "I have not
only endeavored to awaken you, that you might be moved with fear, but I
have used my utmost endeavors to win you" (Farewell Sermon). The
manuscript of the sermon is dated April, 1735, and it seems to have been
printed very nearly as it was written.